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Won't load GUI

What my problem is that when I start up Linux, I get no GUI. I get the command menu thing. Is this something to do with my video card? Because when I installed Mandrake, I couldn't find my drivers for the video card so I left it unconfigured and I figured I would find the right drivers once I got it installed. Well, my guess is that was a bad idea. Is there anything I can do? My friend mentioned to me that I could get the right drivers downloaded through the command area, but how can this be done?

first of all from the cli to start x you need to type "startx"
If x isn't configured you can run a script called xorgcfg that should configure a useable one for you...if it messes up, then ctl-alt-f1 and tell us what errors you are getting.

I actually did that last night and it just did the same thing. I didn't do the error thing. I'll try that when I get home, I'm at work right now. But thanks, is there any other things I should try if this doesn't work?

well, first lets see the errors you get, if it still shows text you can just post that, or if it startx the xserver in vt7 then you can ctl-alt-f1 to get the error messages, post those back and we'll see what we can come up with...

Well I do the xorgcfg and it kinda hangs for a little bit. Nothing is showing on my monitor. Then I hit the ctrl+alt+1, and it shows like a list of drivers that it's been cycling through. I've done it twice and it seems like it keeps getting hung on the voodoo drivers. Should I just wait longer?

Have you tried reinstalling your OS from the disk (actually you don't need to do a full reinstall, just an 'upgrade' or something). The idea is to get to the options to configure your video card ... You might be able to tweak a couple of settings in there and get things working.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

Have you tried just loading the nv module and specifying that module in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? (warning: always backup ANY config file before you modify it). You may be able to "force" the system to use the correct driver that way.

There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.

You could try running the config tool again, use Vesa drivers and update to the nVidia drivers later when you get up and running. There is a tool called xfdrake that should run from the command line. The nv driver will be fine for you to start with, but if you have trouble there try the standard vesa driver.